Budget airline Tiger Airways may be eyeing the lucrative travel market in Malaysia.
Some new destinations could include Ipoh, Kuala Terengganu and Kota Kinabalu.
The move follows its recent return to profitability, and to start afresh, the company has unveiled a new corporate identity to go along.
It said the fresh look reflects the company's "renewed purpose".
With six new aircraft expected for delivery by next March, Tiger is looking at expanding its Malaysian routes.
Speaking in Malaysia, managing director Ho Yuen Sang said the airline plans to increase frequency of its Penang-Singapore route from 14 times to 21 weekly.
The airline also plans to promote Penang as the connection hub via Singapore.
Tiger also expects passenger growth to hit a high 20 per cent for the year ending March 2014.
This is similar to what was recorded last year, driven by network expansion.
To go along with its expansion plans, the carrier has been renamed Tigerair.
Apart from just branding change, the company has been working to improve its operations, including reducing response time at its call centre.
Group CEO Koay Peng Yen said: "It's still important for us to focus on being a no-frills airline, that's what we want to be good at. (But) we also realise that it's not just about operating the airline, we want to focus on operational service excellence at the same time. So all the basic items have to be done very well, such that the customer experience - from the time you make a reservation on the website or phone app, all the way to the inflight experience and post-flight experience - all must add up to a great experience."
It has not been a great experience for Tiger over the past two years.
Its Australian operations were suspended in 2011 over safety concerns.
Overall earnings have also been dragged down by start-up losses from its associate airlines in Indonesia and the Philippines.
Paul Yong, vice president of equity research at DBS Vickers, said: "In areas like Indonesia and Philippines for Tiger Airways - where they are still new - we do expect them to be loss-making for a while. We are currently in an expansionary phase of the market whereby all the carriers are just looking to grab market share, so I think consumers can expect low fares and more choices for a while to come."
The airline recently got the green light to hive off a 60 per cent stake in Tiger Australia to Virgin Australia, and it has also been profitable for two straight quarters, after six previous quarters of losses.
Mr Yong said: "Both the current management and the interim management that Singapore Airlines previously jettisoned in, both played an important role in helping to steady the ship for Tiger Airways, particularly in Australia where they've helped operations to resume to pre-suspension levels."
DBS Vickers said Tiger has been working to boost its balance sheet, and it can look forward to better days ahead.
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A big revamp by the CEO. It is refreshing from the airline which didn't have a desirable track record. This rebranding isn't just superficial. Passenger experience will also be improved according to the CEO. Now it is more focused on making itself stand out from others, something that it should have done long ago. With this change, hopefully the fengshui of the airline will also turn for the better.
Southeast Asian low-cost airlines are looking at new ways to out-do one another.
In a market driven by rising wealth, it seems size does matter, so too does keeping faith with customers, as Singapore Airlines' budget offshoot Scoot has learned in its first year of operation.
Long-haul low-cost carrier Scoot is adding another destination to its small but growing fleet. Its inaugural flight to Seoul commences 12 June.
Scoot’s CEO Campbell Wilson said: “Our fifth aircraft does not operate between 11pm and 4am, which therefore provides some backup for when our key departures to Australia, Taipei and Japan and most of the China flights depart. So when you grow a little larger, you have a little bit more bandwidth to be able to counter the inevitable issues that crop up.”
Scoot has had to counter setbacks in its early days, but it said it has done what it can recapture passenger confidence.
Mr Wilson said: “We've certainly listened to the feedback that we've received in the early months of selling tickets.”
Shashank Nigam, CEO of SimpliFlying, said: “I believe their China focus has really paid off well, launching secondary Chinese cities that SIA doesnt fly to… for example, Nanjing.”
By 2015, Scoot will be the first low-cost carrier in ASEAN to operate the Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, which will help the airline reduce costs.
But in the highly-competitive environment, analysts said low-cost carriers like Scoot and Tiger Airways could look to establish more partnerships with other airlines in order to grow their network.
Mr Nigam said: "Tiger needs to work closer with regional partners like Mandela and SeaAir in the Philippines which have been highly unprofitable of late. I think if they can leverage that better, it will help the group overall. For Tiger, I think the key is beating the trend of commoditisation. Everyone can fly now. Everyone can fly cheaply. You want to go beyond price as the product. "
Indonesia's biggest budget carrier Lion Air has an outstanding US$24-billion order for Airbus and also launched Malindo Airways in Malaysia to capture a share of the market from its competitor AirAsia.
AirAsia X, AirAsia's long-haul low-cost arm, is setting up its second hub in Bangkok.
Paul Ng, head of Aviation at SH Legal, said: "They have a huge fleet. And they have huge delivery orders. So they have economies of scale, which Scoot does not have. Each of these carriers has hinterlands to rely on. Lion Air (has) Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, and AirAsia, Malaysia, which is the second largest, highest GDP country outside Singapore. These two are very rich sources of revenue.
“For Scoot itself, which is in Singapore, with very high passenger traffic, it's ultimately dependent on international trade lines and on how many trade routes that it can secure from governments to do its business. Lion Air and AirAsia can fly domestically with very few restrictions, subject to there being available slots in the airports that they want to fly into.”
Besides injecting more aircraft to boost yields, experts said budget airlines would also do well to boost ancilliary services, which make up almost 40 per cent of their income.
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Things are heating up. The low cost carriers are finding ways to out perform each other and gain a bigger market share. In order to stand out from the rest, the airline must prove itself to be different, in a good way. Easier said than done when this has to be done while keeping to the low cost model.
LOW-COST carrier Tiger Airways is giving up its orange and black stripes - but not its roar.
The airline will keep its name but drop the pouncing tiger icon from its aircraft body and other marketing materials as part of a major rebranding exercise.
A Tiger spokesman declined to comment when contacted but The Straits Times understands that a big-bang relaunch is planned in the coming weeks.
It is not clear if the change will include a new look for cabin crew, who now don yellow and black uniforms with striped scarves.
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The RESET button has been pushed, Tiger Airways will be rebranded along with the change in fortunes recently with regards to performance reports. Such secrecy almost make you wait in great anticipation, wondering what's up their sleeves. Time will tell.
Singapore Airlines, which has too many pilots amid a business downturn, does not expect the surplus to ease any time soon.
Cadet pilots have been told that until Sept 30, those who quit may have their bonds waived.
The usual payback for leaving before serving the seven-year work bond can be more than $250,000, pilots said.
There are 95 cadets currently in training, said SIA, which froze fresh recruitment early last year.
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Not exactly very good times for the SIA cadets. For those who are languishing in the middle of the course, I guess it will be tough to give up now. Those who already attained at least a CPL, jumping over to Scoot or Tiger will be a good option.
Tiger Airways saw a 37.1 per cent surge in passengers booked to 639,000 for the month of April, partly due to an improved performance in its operations down under.
"(Tiger Australia) was operating at a significantly reduced capacity and on a limited schedule a year ago," the budget carrier said on Friday.
The carrier had scaled back domestic services in Australia following a six-week grounding in 2011, after the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority cited safety concerns. Tiger has since started to rebuild its network in Australia.
Passenger traffic for the group overall was up 33.3 per cent at one billion revenue passenger-kilometres (RPK) in April, while capacity went up 32.8 per cent to 1.21 billion available seat-kilometres (ASK).
Passenger load factor was nearly flat, edging up 0.3 percentage point to 83 per cent.
Meanwhile, Tiger Singapore carried 378,000 passengers, up 14.2 per cent year-on-year.
Passenger traffic increased 20.7 per cent to 712 million RPK, against a 26.5 per cent bump in capacity to 879 million ASK.
This caused passenger load factor to slip 3.9 percentage points to 81 per cent.
Tiger Australia's passenger numbers surged 93.3 per cent to 261,000 and passenger load factor rose 12.5 percentage points to 88.4 per cent for April.
Passenger traffic climbed 77.8 per cent to 297 million RPK while capacity went up 52.7 per cent from the corresponding month a year ago to 336 million ASK.
Shares in Tiger closed at 66 cents on Friday, down half a cent.
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Numbers looking good on the low cost carrier and capacity is increasing constantly.
Tiger Airways flew a total of 664,000 passengers in January, a 42 per cent increase from 466,000 a year earlier.
The budget carrier on Monday reported a 34 per cent increase in January traffic to 1.01 billion revenue passenger-kilometres, while capacity rose 20 per cent to 1.2 billion available seat-kilometres.
Consequently, overall passenger load factor improved 8 percentage points to 84 per cent from a year ago.
Tiger Singapore saw its passenger load factor increase 10 percentage points to 84 per cent, on a 23 per cent growth in revenue passenger-kilometre which outpaced the 8 per cent increase in capacity.
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Load factor increasing more than fleet expansion. That is good news for the young carrier.
Tiger Airways Holdings Ltd. returned to profit in the quarter ended December after six consecutive quarters of losses, but the Singapore-based budget carrier flagged a tough few months ahead as demand for air travel enters a seasonal slowdown.
Asia's budget carriers have fared better than full-service airlines in recent years as the global economic slowdown pushed many small and medium-sized companies to look for cheaper travel options. But Tiger has battled losses because its Australian unit, which accounts for a third of its fleet, was grounded by the regulator in July 2011 for six weeks on safety concerns and only gradually allowed to resume full flight operations.
Koay Peng Yen, Tiger's group chief executive, said it was too early to say whether the airline will report a profit or loss in the final quarter of the current fiscal year.
"Our (fiscal) fourth quarter has just begun. But we expect it to be weaker," Mr. Koay told reporters in a conference call after the results were announced. Tiger has been "encouraged" by the turnaround in the fiscal third quarter and will make efforts to keep up the recovery momentum, he said.
In a disclosure to the Singapore stock exchange, Tiger said it expects to report an operating loss for the fiscal year ending March 31, citing a net loss in the first nine months of the year of 30 million Singapore dollars (US$24.4 million). It reported a net loss of S$87.9 million in the same period of the previous fiscal year.
Tiger, in which Singapore Airlines Ltd. owns a 32.7% equity stake, swung to net profit of S$2 million in the quarter ended Dec. 31 from a S$17.4 million loss a year earlier, after passenger traffic improved and the carrier better utilized its aircraft fleet. Revenue rose 47% to S$248 million. It was the company's first profit since the quarter ended March 2011.
The September-to-December period is traditionally the strongest quarter for air travel because of holidays, which helped Tiger Airways, Mr. Koay said.
Tiger's passenger load factor climbed to 85% in the fiscal third quarter, compared with 79% in the same quarter of the previous year.
Losses at Tiger's Australian unit widened 50% from a year earlier to S$12.9 million, as it struggled to recover from the costly flight suspension in 2011.
Tiger has been trying to repair its image in Australia, where it has 11 Airbus A320 jets. Its flight operations have since returned to the level before the suspension, Mr. Koay said.
The company will seek shareholder approval for a proposed sale of 60% of Tiger Australia to Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd. on Jan. 31, he said, adding that he expects shareholders to approve the transaction. The companies had announced the deal—worth 35 million Australian dollars (US$36,800)—in October last year, but it needs shareholder and regulatory approvals.
Earlier this week, India's SpiceJet Ltd.reported it returned to profit in the quarter ended December as it benefited from lower competition. Southeast Asia's biggest budget carrier AirAsia Bhd, which said earlier this week that it has dropped plans for a Singapore-based airline unit, has yet to report its earnings for the October-to-December quarter.
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Good news for Tiger Airways, posting its first quarterly profit since March 2011. It's been a rough ride, but things are only getting better for the airline. The sale of 60% of Tiger Australia will hopefully help the group to bleed less. Tiger mandela and SEAir has alot of room to expand and improve.
Tiger Airways Holdings enjoyed a significantly stronger year-on-year boost in loads and passenger numbers in December last year, as it recovered from a difficult 2011.
The latest operating statistics show that the budget carrier appears to be on a steady growth trajectory, filling almost more than 85 per cent of its seats systemwide.
Tiger Singapore's passenger numbers grew 22 per cent to 800 million revenue passenger-kilometres (RPK) in December 2012, on the back of a 15 per cent increase in capacity to 904 million available seat-kilometres (ASK).
As a result, its year-on-year passenger load factor rose 6 percentage points to 89 per cent as the number of passengers carried grew 19 per cent to 436,000 passengers.
The recovery was even more impressive in Australia, where Tiger Australia enjoyed a 90 per cent surge in traffic to 268 million RPK in December 2012.
However, these year-on-year improvements were also boosted by the fact that the budget carrier was operating at a significantly reduced capacity and on a limited schedule in December 2011, following the debilitating groundings in July and August. Passenger load factor slipped two percentage points to 79 per cent as more seats were added.
At the group level, Tiger filled 86 per cent of its seats in December, up from 83 per cent a year earlier.
For the 12 months, Tiger Singapore recorded a 19 per cent increase in traffic to 7.6 billion RPK, on the back of a 17 per cent increase in capacity to 9.1 billion ASK.
Passenger load factor for the year was 83 per cent, up one percentage point from the previous corresponding period. The number of passengers carried grew 12 per cent to 4.2 million.
In Australia, Tiger recorded a 11 per cent increase in traffic to 2.2 billion RPK for the 12 months, following a 14 per cent increase in capacity to three billion ASK.
Passenger load factor was 82 per cent, down two percentage points from 2010. The number of passengers carried grew 6 per cent to 2.1 million.
Tiger Holdings is planning to divest itself of 60 per cent of Tiger Australia to Virgin Australia for A$35 million (S$45.3 million), though the deal still has to be approved by Australian regulators.
Meanwhile, Tiger continues to enjoy a steady recovery from a disastrous 2011 and has charted its regional expansion with purchases of stakes in existing players in Indonesia (Mandala) and the Philippines (SeAir), even as it plans its scaleback in Australia.
The airline's stock has also started showing signs of recovery amid more positive calls by several leading analysts.
It closed half a cent up at 75 cents last Friday.
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The days ahead are looking real good for low cost carrier Tiger Airways. It has been a remarkable turnaround in fortunes after the disastrous grounding in 2011. With a change of the big heads in the management level, Tiger has started to roar again.
BUDGET carrier Tiger Airways posted a 56 per cent rise year-on-year in passenger bookings to 628,000 in November, while capacity rose 32 per cent to 1.15 billion in available seat-kilometres (ASK).
Groupwide revenue passenger-kilometres (RPK) increased 47 per cent to 977 million while passenger load factor improved 8 percentage points to 85 per cent.
Tiger Singapore recorded a 33 per cent increase in traffic to 721 million RPK in November. This comes on the back of a 17 per cent increase in capacity to 852 million ASK. Passenger load factor was up 10 percentage points to 85 per cent while the number of passengers carried grew 30 per cent year-on-year to 389,000 passengers.
Tiger Australia, which has been reinstating services following the groundings a year earlier, recorded a 110 per cent increase in traffic to 256 million RPK while capacity increased 113 per cent to 296 million ASK for the month. Tiger Australia carried 239,000 passengers, up 132 per cent year-on-year, though passenger load factor slipped 2 percentage points to 86 per cent.
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Not bad a performance! With a big jump in capacity Tiger Airways actually managed to even improve the load factor. The worst days are probably over and the sunshine is right ahead. Keep it going.
Tiger Airways Holdings Ltd is all set for a growth next year, following a sluggish fiscal year ended March 31, which saw the group registering losses.
Its chief executive officer, Koay Peng Yen, said the group was confident of growth as its subsidiary, Tiger Airways Singapore, posted strong results for the first six months to Sept 31 2012, compared with the previous year corresponding period.
“Tiger Airways Singapore's third quarter, which corresponds to the quarter of the 2012 calendar year, is expected to perform well also, due to the holidays,” he told StarBiz.
For the first six months, Tiger Airways Singapore posted an operating profit of S$8.6mil against a loss of S$4.5mil in the same period of 2011.
For the same period, the group loss after tax narrowed to S$32mil from S$70.5mil recorded in the same period last year.
“Besides posting strong results, Tiger Airways Singapore also achieved the best running on time record in South-East Asia for 2012.
“We also completed 99.99% for all our flights, showing that we don't simply cancel flights in 2012. These achievements would help in our marketing strategies,” he said.
Tiger Airways' investments into Mandala Air in Indonesia and SEAir in the Philippines in 2012 are expected to bear fruit next year.
“As we are now airline partners in these two carriers, we can now better coordinate our networking to the 50 destinations we fly to.
“We have also expanded the number of carriers in Singapore from 12 to 19, which has helped the company to perform better in the first six months (ended Sept 31),” he said.
Koay said the group planned to add another 28 new A320 planes over the next 30 months, increasing the entire fleet under the company to 68 from 40 presently.
“We are also exploring increasing the flights to Penang, which is now running eight per week. India, Thailand, and Indonesia are the other high demand destinations, which we might increase our flight services in the near future,” he said.
On the impact of the global economic slowdown, Koay said it could be a blessing for Tiger Airways.
“During such times people would look for value-for-money airlines to travel and Tiger Airways is one of the leading choices.
“Our tickets are amongst the most competitive, as we sell seats only and not services that you don't need, which ensures that customers don't have to pay for inefficiency,” he said.
Tiger Airways had also recently launched the TigerApp software applications for both smartphones and tablets to facilitate bookings of flights by its customers.
“We want to lead the way as a new generation carrier, with the launch of innovative products for our travellers. The TigerApp is now one of the top 10 Android applications in the travel category in Singapore.
“We have also launched combo flights in 2012 that allow our customers to connect with the other destinations such as Sydney, Perth and Gold Coast via Singapore. “Such combo bookings can be done through a single reservation process,” he said.
Established in September 2004, the group comprises two fully-owned and two associated airlines.
The fully-owned airlines are Tiger Airways Singapore and Tiger Airways Australia.
The associated airlines are Mandala Air in Indonesia and SEAir in the Philippines.
Operating from Singapore and Australia, Tiger Airways' network extends to over 50 destinations across 13 countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
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Better days ahead for Tiger Airways. Koay Peng Yen is determined to bring the airline to greater heights.
An investigation into the low landing approach of one Tiger Airways' plane that contributed to the airline being grounded has found pilots used incorrect altitude information and the airline had an inconsistent safety management system.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) investigated the June 7, 2011 low approach of a Tiger Airbus A320, after it approached Melbourne Airport at 2000 feet altitude rather than the 2500 feet cleared by air traffic control.
The ATSB official report, released on Monday, found that the flight crew based their descent profile on incorrect altitude data on the aircraft's display unit provided by a third party.
Flight crew were also using the flawed data for paper charts and had not identified the error when preparing for the landing approach, the ATSB report states.
It found there was an increased risk of Tiger unintentionally failing to follow published instrument approach procedures, because it was inconsistent in carrying out its safety management system for identifying and managing data base 'anomalies' or errors.
'In addition, different assumptions by the data suppliers and the operator compromised the quality assurance of the navigational data,' the report states.
CASA grounded Tiger's Australian fleet on July 2, 2011 after a series of safety concerns, including two low flight approaches into Melbourne and Avalon airports, saying it had lost confidence in the airline's ability to manage safety appropriately.
After a six-week grounding, it cleared Tiger to resume flying in August that year.
In its report released on Monday, the ATSB said that after being alerted to their low approach by air traffic control, the Tiger crew corrected their altitude to 2500 feet, continued the approach and landed.
Tiger had responded to the incident by implementing 'an auditable process for identifying and managing any navigational database anomalies in its aircraft fleet'.
The ATSB said the incident 'reinforces the safety benefits of a resilient safety management system and operator procedures' and that 'the accurate application of those procedures by all key personnel, is also important as a safety defence'.
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The truth has come to light. So it wasn't 100% pilot error but rather following an incorrect set of data during descend. But why is it that only two flights were affected? This is baffling.
SINGAPORE - Shares in Singapore Airlines fell sharply following the announcement of a steep decline in profit and after Chief Executive Officer Goh Choon Phong said he expected the second half of the financial year to be "very challenging", slowed down by the dual headwinds of high fuel prices and the economic situation in key markets.
Shares ended 1 per cent down on Monday at S$10.47, after falling earlier in the session to a four-month low of S$10.40, as the market gave its first reaction to Friday's announcement of a 54-per-cent drop in second quarter net profit on higher losses in the cargo business.
Although the result was not unexpected, the company's downbeat outlook for the second half gave investors an incentive to sell.
Speaking at a briefing on Monday morning, Mr Goh reiterated that there was little relief on the immediate horizon.
"We can expect that going forward the economy will continue to be very challenging or perhaps even more challenging than it is now, and we don't see any reprieve in terms of improvement especially from economies such as Europe," he said.
Still, despite the gloomy outlook, the airline thinks its strategy of developing both the premium and no-frills components of its business leaves it in the best possible position to weather the turbulence.
On the premium front, SilkAir is expanding and working more closely with SIA on fleet and route planning. This has resulted in a 25-per-cent increase in cross-selling between the two full-service wings of the airline, Mr Goh announced.
Meanwhile, at the budget end, Scoot is also expanding while working more closely with low-cost partner Tiger Airways to stimulate new traffic and tap new markets.
As a result of this dual-pronged approach, "SIA is able to participate in the growth of virtually any of the segments of the airline business. At different points in time, different segments of the airline portfolio grow at a different rate and are affected in a different manner," said Mr Goh.
Analysts, though, are sceptical about the impact of such measures on SIA's bottom line.
"Although SIA has attempted to stave off competition from the low-cost carriers and the Middle Eastern airlines via the development of SilkAir and the broadening of its alliance network, we think these actions will not have an immediate impact on profitability. As such, we see further near-term challenges," said CIMB Research. - David Bottomley
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Investors are not very optimistic about SIA's future and started dumping the stocks, and they are not to be blamed for it. It's tough times ahead for SIA, but all is not lost.
The main fleet may not be performing well, but as a group, they should do much better considering Scoot, SilkAir and Tiger Airways have got great potential in the days ahead. One very good example is Qantas posting poor results but its Jetstar Group did exceptionally well and is able to minimise the impact of profit loss in 2011.
Perhaps low cost is the way to go now.
SYDNEY: Virgin Australia on Tuesday sold 10 per cent of its business to Singapore Airlines while agreeing to buy a 60 per cent stake in Tiger Airways Australia as it upped the ante in its battle with Qantas.
In a slew of announcements, the country's second-biggest airline after the Flying Kangaroo also said it was making a A$98.7 million (US$101.9 million) takeover offer for Perth-based Australian regional carrier Skywest.
Virgin agreed to pay A$35 million (US$36 million) for its holding in Tiger, the loss-making subsidiary of Singapore's Tiger Airways, while Singapore Airlines bought its stake for A$105 million.
"The transactions overall represent a monumental shift for Virgin Australia which, if approved, will see a more even playing field in Australian aviation," Macquarie analysts said in a note.
"They arguably create a replica of Qantas."
Virgin chief executive John Borghetti said the deals were designed to accelerate the airline's growth and increase competition in Australia, where the domestic market has long been dominated by Qantas.
The acquisitions of Tiger and Skywest would boost Virgin's presence in the budget and regional markets, "enabling us to fast-track our expansion in these areas and become a stronger competitor".
"These transactions will bring important benefits to Australia, driving growth in jobs, tourism and competition," said Borghetti, adding that he planned to make the carrier Australia's "airline of choice in all markets".
If the Tiger and Skywest deals receive regulatory and shareholder approvals, Virgin will expand its fleet to 139 aircraft and employ more than 9,000 workers.
Australia has a lucrative domestic market and global airlines have been deepening ties with local carriers to access it.
Last month, Qantas and Emirates announced a major global alliance which opens up Qantas's domestic network of more than 50 destinations and nearly 5,000 flights per week to the Dubai-based airline.
Singapore Airlines is a key international competitor to Qantas and CEO Goh Choon Phong said his company taking a stake in Virgin showed "our shared commitment to an alliance that provides a wide range of consumer benefits".
"Singapore Airlines fully supports the ongoing transformation of Virgin Australia, which has already resulted in a more competitive aviation market in Australia," he added.
The Singaporean airline, which paid 42.88 cents a share for an issue of 245.6 million stock, a 6.8 per cent discount to the last trading price, joins Etihad which also has a 10 per cent stake in Virgin.
Richard Branson's Virgin Group and Air New Zealand are other major equity holders.
Borghetti described Singapore Airlines as "an important strategic alliance partner".
"We are very pleased to have their support as an investor," he said.
In the Skywest deal, Virgin made a cash and scrip offer for the airline that operates in regional Australia and Southeast Asia.
Skywest executive chairman Jeff Chatfield said the offer represented a substantial premium to the current share price.
"Based on our advice it is likely that this proposal will take some months to fully play out," he said in a statement.
"Maybe the profit contribution from Virgin Australia may not mean that much, but Virgin Australia can help Singapore Airlines maintain a very strong hold on the Australian market in terms of generating feed from Australia, and that does have a big impact on Singapore Airlines," said Leithen Francis, the editor of Aviation Week.
- AFP/fa/ck/xq
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Roller coaster week for aviation don't you think so? And much of the news being associated with SIA. This move by them makes me feel that they don't want to waste too much time and money into Tiger Australia. What do you think? Now that the Tiger Australia fleet will be expanded by Virgin instead, to 35 by 2018 from the current 11.
Does this mean the A320 orders made by Tiger Holdings will mostly go to the Singapore base, with a number heading to Tiger Mandela? I guess it's a way Tiger Holding achieve a better balance in the books since the Australia base has been pulling down the profits into the red zone.
